Tag Archives: book reviews

March 17, 2026 · 10:36 pm

ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: THE BRICK MOON (1872)

THE BRICK MOON (1872) – Written by Edward Everett Hale, best known for The Man without a Country. This novella started out as a serialized story published in 1869 in the October, November and December issues of Atlantic Monthly. A follow-up installment, titled Life in the Brick Moon, was published in the February 1870 issue.

In 1872, the entire four-part piece was published by Roberts Brothers as part of His Level Best and Other Stories, which contained works by multiple authors. The Brick Moon was published again in 1899 as part of Edward Everett Hale’s The Brick Moon and Other Stories.

The story begins in the 1840s when Frederic Ingham, the tale’s narrator, and his college friends Orcutt and Halliburton plan a dream project which winds up taking decades to fulfill – a manmade artificial satellite, the first recorded in science fiction stories.

The possibility of wireless communication was unknown in that time period, so the three friends don’t plan to use their Brick Moon to transmit and receive communications. They instead plan for it to serve as a heavenly object that ships at sea can use as a marker. Continue reading →

12 Comments

Filed under Ancient Science Fiction

Tagged as , , , , ,

March 17, 2026 · 12:52 pm

THE VOYAGE OF MAEL DUIN – HAPPY SAINT PATRICK’S DAY 2026!

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! Here’s a look at an ancient Irish epic from Lebor na hUidre, The Book of the Dun Cow. 

THE VOYAGE OF MAEL DUIN (Immram curaig Mail Duin) – Dated to around the late 900s A.D. or earlier, this story deals with the epic quest of Mael Duin (aka Maildun and Maeldune) and the crew of his ship as he seeks revenge on his father’s killers. This lengthy epic deserves to be as well-known as the Odyssey or the Quest for the Golden Fleece.

        At any rate, exactly why the main character wants revenge for that slaying is beyond me, because Mael Duin’s father, supposedly Ailill of the Edge of Battle, raped a nun at a priory and she subsequently gave birth to him. The nun turned the infant Mael Duin over to her queen and king to raise as if he was their own child.

        Mael Duin matured, and proved better than his presumed siblings at athletic, martial and academic competitions. Losing their temper over this, one of our hero’s foster brothers ridiculed Mael Duin for not even knowing who his real father and mother were.

        The hero prevailed upon his mother the queen to tell him the truth, and she referred him to his birth mother, the nun. She revealed to Mael Duin the name of his father and the young man set out with his three foster brothers to the land of his father Ailill of the Edge of Battle. Continue reading →

14 Comments

Filed under Mythology

Tagged as , , , , , ,

March 12, 2026 · 3:24 pm

ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: THE PROFESSOR’S EXPERIMENTS (1910)

THE PROFESSOR’S EXPERIMENTS (1910) – By Paul Bo’ld (sic) – real name: Edward George Paul Bousfield. (Not to be confused with John Paul George Ann Ringo.) A possible influence on H.P. Lovecraft’s Herbert West, Reanimator in style but not in content. This collection of six short stories centered around mad scientist Jerome Mudgewood and his assistant Dr Gertrude Delaney.

Mudgewood’s envelope-pushing experiments unleash forces beyond his control, resulting in death and tragedy. The stories in order:

The Retardatory Force – Professor Mudgewood tries to harness a pair of sub-atomic and extra-atomic forces, believing that eternal life can be achieved by doing so. He, Dr Delaney and their housekeeper instead find themselves confined in an energy field that slows matter down and eventually dissolves it into nothingness. Jerome and Gertrude survive but the housekeeper isn’t as lucky.   

The Magnetic Essence – The Professor isolates a particle in iron, a particle which he believes causes iron to be attracted to magnets. Dubbing this particle “the magneto component” he plans to implant it into any object he wishes to magnetize. It turns out the force is also responsible for maintaining an atom’s integrity and so extracting “the magneto component” figuratively splits the atom, unleashing incredibly deadly explosions.      Continue reading →

16 Comments

Filed under Ancient Science Fiction

Tagged as , , , ,

March 7, 2026 · 12:51 am

CONAN THE BARBARIAN: THE ALTAR AND THE SCORPION

This weekend’s light-hearted and escapist superhero post looks at Marvel Comics’ adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s non-Conan short story The Altar and the Scorpion rewritten with Conan as the central character.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN Vol 1 #52 (Jul 1975)

Title: The Altar and the Scorpion

Villain: The Scorpion God

Synopsis: Conan’s wanderings bring him to Belverus, the capital city of Nemedia in the Hyborian Age. He encounters the suave, handsome and capable Murilo, whom he first met in Rogues in the House during his battle with Thak and Nabodinus.

Murilo now leads a mercenary troop called Crimson Company and he hires Conan as his new second-in-command. The hundreds of Crimson Company soldiers ride south to Ophir to start working for their new client – the ruler of the city of Ronnoco.

Their first mission is to retrieve the Ring of the Black Shadow, a powerful ring in the ruins of an abandoned, ancient Valusian city dating back to the time of Robert E. Howard’s character Kull the Conqueror. The ring can unleash a dark god if worn by a mortal. Conan and a female member of Crimson Company, Tara of Hanumar, shine in the expedition.

Conan finds the Ring of the Black Shadow, thus animating a huge statue of the Scorpion God which guards the ring to keep it out of human hands. Our hero fights the statue and renders it inert again with a sword through its “brain.”

Heeding Murilo’s instructions that nobody must touch the ring, two Crimson Company soldiers are assigned to stand guard over it while Conan, Tara and the others ride on to Ronnoco to get priestly help in containing the ring.

One of the guards greedily decides to steal the ring but upon touching it is transformed into a human-sized black shadow-being. He absorbs the other guard at his touch and becomes as large as two humans. Continue reading →

22 Comments

Filed under Superheroes

Tagged as , , , , , ,

February 28, 2026 · 12:05 am

STEVE DITKO’S MR. A: COMIC BOOK FANS SHRUGGED

This weekend’s escapist and light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko’s iconic Mr. A, warts and all.

MR. A

Secret Identity: Rex Graine, reporter for the Daily Crusader newspaper.

First Appearance: Witzend #3 (1967)

Origin: Rex Graine wanted to fight crime without endangering his friends and loved ones. He assumed the white-costumed identity Mr. A and took on the forces of evil.

Powers: Mr. A was in peak human condition and excelled at unarmed combat. He wore a white metal facial mask/ helmet for protection and anonymity. He also wore metal gloves and boots to make his punches and kicks more potent. I assumed he wore articulated body armor on his torso too, for some protection against bullets.

        This character was an expert investigator and used calling cards with no writing – just black on one half and white on the other to represent his black & white moral attitudes. I’d have had those calling cards be made of metal, too, with sharp edges so they could be thrown like Moon Knight’s crescent moon blades.

Comment: Mr. A was a more “pure” version of the Question, Steve Ditko’s similar character also created in 1967 when he worked for Charlton Comics. Ditko owned Mr. A, whose nom de guerre came from the Objectivist principle “A is A”. He was an uncompromising vigilante the like of which superhero comic books had rarely seen in 1967. In the decades to come such figures became very numerous in comics. Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under Superheroes

Tagged as , , , , , ,

February 21, 2026 · 12:11 am

MARVEL PREMIERE ISSUES 31-40

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog resumes examining Marvel Premiere, this time from issue #31 to 40.

MARVEL PREMIERE Vol 1 #31 (Aug 1976)

Title: A Birthday Nightmare

Villains: A violent mob and Major Del Tremens’ troops

Synopsis: This was the origin story for Woodgod, created by Bill Mantlo. Just outside Liberty, NM is a ranch used by government scientists David Pace and his wife Ellen Pace. It serves as their residence AND laboratory for their Top-Secret projects.   

One such project is a deadly nerve gas called Purple Mist. Another is the cross-fertilization of human and animal genetic material which has resulted in the unnatural “birth” of Marvel’s newest character – called Woodgod by David Pace.

Under observation by the Paces, Woodgod grows to maturity in just three days and his enormous intellectual potential has him speaking in simplistic English but we’re told Woodgod will be at genius level in a few more days.

Superstitious people in Liberty, NM get covert glimpses of the creature and decide to raid the Pace ranch to destroy Woodgod and any other such “monsters” being created there. David and Ellen are shot to death in the attack but our main character is super-strong and invulnerable, so he survives being shot multiple times.

Woodgod’s still-childlike mind is confused by the violence. The attackers destroy all the lab equipment at the ranch and unintentionally unleash the Purple Mist nerve gas into the air. All the attackers die, then all the human and animal life within 15 miles of the ranch drops dead as well.

The only survivor is Woodgod, whose healing powers make him immune to the gas. At nearby Vertigo Military Base (later retconned into Tranquility Base) Major Del Tremens and his troops become aware of the chaos at the Department of Defense installation on David and Ellen Pace’s ranch. Continue reading →

10 Comments

Filed under Superheroes

Tagged as , , , , , ,

February 16, 2026 · 3:56 pm

ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: THE LUNARIAN PROFESSOR (1909)

THE LUNARIAN PROFESSOR AND HIS REMARKABLE REVELATIONS CONCERNING THE EARTH, THE MOON AND MARS TOGETHER WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE CRUISE OF THE SALLY ANN (1909) – Written by James B Alexander back in the glory days of titles so long they might not fit in a 140 character limit.

The story is set in 1892, when James Alexander pretends that, while on a fishing trip he encountered a humanoid with a head like a globe, six limbs, large eyes and six wings. The being claims to be a “Lunarian,” a man from our moon.

He is a professor and informs Alexander that he and his fellow Lunarians travel from planet to planet by manipulating gravity. They live in vast underground caverns on the moon, caverns with a breathable atmosphere. Their mastery of gravity is the key to their advanced technology.

The professor’s people have been observing Earth for an untold amount of time. James Alexander even learns that in the distant past humans had to fight intelligently evolving reptiles for planetary supremacy. The cavemen won.

The Lunarians grow vegetation in hydroponic trays and dispose of their dead through a disintegration process that breaks the bodies down into their base elements, thus nothing gets wasted. Though their own culture is socialistic the Lunarians have no shyness about earning profits by selling their advanced technology to other inhabited planets.  

The Lunarians have even developed methods of predicting the future. Alexander asks about Earth’s future and the professor from the moon is happy to lay it all out for the Earthling. Continue reading →

6 Comments

Filed under Ancient Science Fiction

Tagged as , , , , ,

February 14, 2026 · 2:28 am

TEEN TITANS: THE 1976 REVIVAL

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at the 1976 return of DC ‘s Teen Titans team after a few year hiatus.

TEEN TITANS Vol 1 #44 (Nov 1976)

Title: The Man Who Toppled the Titans

Villain: Dr. Light

Synopsis: Dr. Light captures four of the former members of the Teen Titans – Robin, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash and Speedy (should be called Red Arrow to avoid confusion about his m.o.). He wants to use them as bait in a trap to kill the Justice League. 

Malcolm Duncan, the black member of the Teen Titans, decides that he will need superpowers to save the former teammates. He dons the exo-skeleton and shield of the Golden Age superhero the Guardian.

As the new Guardian he frees Robin, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash and Speedy. The five of them defeat Dr. Light and decide to stay together to revive the Teen Titans team. Continue reading →

12 Comments

Filed under Superheroes

Tagged as , , , , , ,

February 13, 2026 · 2:03 am

DOES LOVE DIE WITH YOU? BY MIA WINHERTT

DOES LOVE DIE WITH YOU? (2025) – This is the first novel from fellow blogger Mia Winhertt, known previously for her excellent short works. The story is a romantic fantasy so it’s outside my usual type of reading material, but I found it a wonderfully written tale that can’t help but inspire emotional reactions from anyone who has ever been in love but was reluctant to open up about it.

Mia gives us Aaron Philip, who has been in love with Diya Awasthi for seven years but has concealed from her the depth of his emotions. On the day he at long last works up the resolve to confess his love for her he dies in an accident on his way to meet with Diya. Continue reading →

10 Comments

Filed under opinion

Tagged as , , , , ,

February 10, 2026 · 4:33 pm

ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: THE NEW HUMANS (1909)

UgandaTHE NEW HUMANS (1909) – Written by B Vallance. No other name has come to light for the author of this thought-provoking work. Explorer Montgomery Merrick is roaming around the wilds of 1909 Uganda when he falls down a mountainside and into a concealed valley.

Merrick’s injuries are such that he does not expect to survive but he wakes up on an operating table in fine condition. Looking down at him are amoeboid humans who don barrel-shaped exo-skeletons whenever they need to keep their forms stable, as in during the surgery they were performing on Merrick.  

One of the beings speaks English and introduces himself to the recovering patient as the Chief Adaptor, who takes credit for “repairing” our hero. Merrick gradually becomes aware that his ultimate fate is still being debated by his odd saviors. Continue reading →

10 Comments

Filed under Ancient Science Fiction

Tagged as , , , , ,